The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1887-02-03
"LANGSYN N E. F"
Sweet Memories of the Past.
Words that Recall the Long Ago, and
Some Reflections on the Same.
IGreenville ReflectOr.l

"IIangsyne how doth the word come back
With magic meaning to the -heart
As memory roams the sunny track
From which hopes dreams were 10th TO
No ,oY like by-past Joy appears
For what is gone we fret and pine;
Were life spun out thousand years,
1t would not match Langsyne!
There is no word in our language
that will, even in the smallest measure,
convey to the mind SO much of mean
ing as this idiomatic old Scottish word,
combining as it does, SO much sweet
ness and tenderness and depth of ex-
pression-"the long ago" comes nearer
than any we can recall to memory just
now, and though it is far less terse and
simple, reaches nearer the full slgnifl-
cation of that. one word, Langsyne
Yes, we think of tits many glorious,
vivid visions of happiness to come, Its
varied excitements of brightly gleam-
ing glittering anticipations of all an
ardent imaginative nature, strained to
its utmost tension, could reVel and
feast and delight itself in, and its
pleasures that were real and not "fieet-
ing away" on the moment, as it were
with feelings reverent, holy, as II we
, were in the presence Of the dead, or
place made holy by the worship of a
vastly superior being. But these are
all of the "Langsyne.'
The poetic imaginery of Jean Paul
Richter, when dwelling in sad retro
spection of the Past, shadowy, too, 1t
seems at times, renders it "that dusk
of down-gone days" nor could he
have been more descriptive, for there
! is ever a twilight shadow floating: like
flny haze, over the Past, sunny and
bright and golden as it once may have
seemed.
And like unto the "Langsyne" OF
the Scottish poet must have been the
pervading thought of Washington IT.
wing, which prompted him, in tender
remin niscences, to write:
"The love of locality, the charm and
attraction which one homely land
scape possesses to us, surprising all
stranger beauties, is a remarkable
feature in the human heart. How the
events of life, as we return to them
have grown into the we'll remembered
background of the places where they
fell upon us Here is some summer
garden or sunny lane beautlfied and
canonized forever with the food OF a
great iov; and here are dim and silent
spots-rooms always shadowed and
dark to us-where distress or deatf
came once, and since then dwells ev
ermore."
Yet how wonderfully Time, which
mellows all things with its legacy o
age, can soften these! Under its be
nehcent influence less glowing are ou
brightest memories, less darksome ou
most gloomy. There are times ever
when beneath that gracious "dusk,
which ever wells the past, they seem tt
blend together
I'm that sweet mood when pleasan
/ thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind
Tennyson, the idylic poet, seems t.
have also fallen under the hallowin!
influence of "Langsyne," for hear hin
as he mournfully says:
and the stately ships sail on
To their haven under the hill
But 0 for the touch of vanish'd d hand,
And the sound of voice that is still J!
Who will deny that he was the
} travelling over scenes of vanished day
and, in imagination, picturing to him
self the sight of a face that had gone
ever dear in the "Langsyne." An
then, too, see the longing that over
} came him as he wrote:
But the tender grace of day that is dea
, Will never come back to ME.
The subjoined little verse, by tru
poet, we'll illustrates the pathos of ths
word, "Langsyne:
The old man sits and dreams away
| The long hours of the summer day;
He thinks about the things of old,
When life was like tale untold.
"And fancies come of Paradise,
j., And he is looking in the eyes
Upturned to his in happy trust
Oh sweet eyes. hidden under dust
nOh. happy days of long ago!
Oh, memories sweet! When daisies bio
Above the lips in silence set,
- The faithful heart will not forget.